Copyright and TOS options for addon work

[Beladona]

In light of recent issues regarding the sale and distribution of addon works for monetary profit without prior consent of the actual authors, we have been working on ideas to help prevent this in the future.

One such idea was brought up by ayradyss in which we use a popular and growing copyright service that freely provides generic copyrights for most works.

One I personally selected that I believe covers the majority of what we do, that basically allows derivitive works, and addons that are based on this addon, provided that the author is contacted and the original copyright license is included. Profit or commercial use is prohibited. You can see it here:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

Simply providing the link in your toc may be enough by adding a line that something like this:

## Interface: 1500
## Title: Your Addon Title
## Notes: Information about your addon
## License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5

That is how I plan to do it. Just thought I would share...

[Osagasu_Jiyuu]

you might want to put the legalese there as well as/instead of the deed, because some fool will bring up the point that the deed has no legal value, and only the liscense itself does. If that happens, the entire thing may be down the drain.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.../2.5/legalcode

[Kaelten]

k, then do this.

## License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5
## LegalCode: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/legalcode

[Beladona]

the deed specifically states that it is a summary of the full legal data located at a link which is also provided. From a legal standpoint this is completely acceptable and legally binding...

although I have no problem providing both links in my addons...

You are right though, it might be better to provide both, so that you are more likely to have legally binding acceptance when they acquire it...

[Osagasu_Jiyuu]

Well, IANAL, but it says in the disclaimer:

The Commons Deed is not a license. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the Legal Code (the full license) — it is a human-readable expression of some of its key terms. Think of it as the user-friendly interface to the Legal Code beneath. This Deed itself has no legal value, and its contents do not appear in the actual license.

so I figured that it didn't.

[Inokis]

I think this is all well and good and should be done. However, when someone steals the work, they edit the TOC file, removing the reference to the copyright and whoever downloads it is none the wiser that it was ripped off. Unless you do something that pops up in game mentioning the copyright, so it would at least take more knowledge to remove that. Perhaps standardizing every mod to have an in game window that shows disclaimer and source. For example in the top left corner, a little window that pops up with the copyright disclaimers. Each mod loaded would add its disclaimer and source to this little window, make it scrollable and small so that it doesn't take up space, with a display timer of say 5 mins.

[Beladona]

that is the case with any program or work that includes a license. You can remove it if you really want to, but it doesn't change the fact that the original product included a license that prohibited removal or tampering of the license prior to or during re-distribution. If anything like this was ever pursued in court, the original publication with license is what would be looked at. The fact they removed the license only adds to the violation...

[ayradyss]

Popups bad, agreed

[Beladona]

popups? I assume you mean TOS agreements? Whether you like them or not, they are necessary...

[Beladona]

Yes a popup in game would probably be a bad idea....

I think a simple link in the toc is enough...

[Syntoad]

Is this really much of a solvable problem anyway?

Even with a license on the script itself, if you are buying an addon you most likely don't know how to get the addon yourself to begin with, in which case I doubt you'll be looking at the source to see the license.

And what about when you see someone selling your addon? Do you really see yourself taking any of them to court?

It's probally best just to have a startup message (i.e. "RandomMod 4.xx by JohnnyScriptMan, http://fullofinternets.com this mod is FREE, if you paid for it you're a sucker.")